The Fragrance Of Jesus
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 28, 2010
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
2 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
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My Father,
I want to live in the beauty of holiness.
I want the sweet scent of Jesus Christ
to be breathed into someone’s life…
a beckoning brightness
to shine from Your heart, through me,
into someone’s darkness…
as we pass by together today.
David Hazard
Early Will I Seek You, 78
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As you walk through your days you encounter people who outwardly look quite OK because they have learned to smile and not let anyone know what they really feel deep inside. Some are lonely, some are hurting from a recent loss or deep wounds, some wonder if anyone really cares about them because no one seems to have time to listen, some carry a depressing load of guilt and don’t know what to do with it, some feel that if you really knew them you would not love them, so they are afraid to reveal who they truly are, and even some in church don’t know if God really loves them because they have never seen God’s love among those who are supposed to be His people. The fragrance of Jesus is the sweet smell of compassion, gentleness, humility, a listening, caring heart, and love far beyond any other love found in humans naturally. This fragrance cannot be imitated, rather it comes from an intimate loving fellowship with the Lord Jesus so that His Spirit saturates your soul, and others can touch Him in you.
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Assaults Of The Flesh
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 25, 2010
My people are bent on turning away from me.
Hosea 11:7 (ESV)
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“The divine life has its dwelling-place in a fallen fleshly nature. It is encompassed by all the corruptions, weaknesses, infirmities, and assaults of the flesh. There is not a moment that it is not exposed to assaults from within. There is not a natural faculty of the mind or throb of the heart that is favorable to its prosperity, but all are contrary to its nature, and hostile to its advance. As there is nothing internal that is favorable to a state of grace, so there is nothing external that encourages it forward. It has many and violent enemies. Satan is ever on the watch to assault it. The world is ever presenting itself in some new form of fascination and power to weaken it. A thousand temptations are perpetually striving to ensnare it. Thus its internal and external enemies are leagued against it. Is it then any wonder that faith should sometimes tremble, that grace should sometimes decline, and that the pulse of the divine life should often beat faintly and feebly?
The saints in every age have felt and lamented this.”
Octavius Winslow
Morning Thoughts, May 31
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“If we hope to overcome them [the spiritual forces of evil], we shall need to bear in mind that they have no moral principles, no code of honour, no higher feelings. They recognize no Geneva Convention to restrict or partially civilize the weapons of their warfare. They are utterly unscrupulous, and ruthless in the pursuit of their malicious designs.”
John R. W. Stott
The Message of Ephesians, 264
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True Happiness
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 21, 2010
“I do not know when I have had happier times in my soul than when I have been sitting at work, with nothing before me but a candle and a white cloth, and hearing no sound but that of my own breath; with God in my soul and heaven in my eye. I rejoice in being exactly what I am—a creature capable of loving God, and who, as long as God lives, must be happy. I get up and look a while out the window. I gaze at the moon and stars, the work of an Almighty Hand. I think of the grandeur of the universe and then sit down and think myself one of the happiest beings in it.”
“ A Poor Methodist Woman” (an anonymous eighteenth-century woman)
Quoted by R. Kent Hughes
Set Apart, 40
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The one who has learned to live in the gladness of the Lord’s fellowship is peacefully content, not because he has much of this world’s goods but because he has true wealth in the Lord Jesus. He has discovered that life does not consist in the abundance of things but in the abundance of the Father’s love. Nothing truly satisfies his or her soul but the Lord’s presence and fellowship with Him. He may possess many things but they do not possess him. He may be poor but it does not matter. His perspective is eternal rather than temporal. As one old saint said, a cup of water tastes like wine when He is present.
The world, the flesh and the devil try to stir up discontent so that there must be one more possession or experience or position in order for there to be true happiness. Little do many suspect that this is the same temptation that drew Adam away from intimate fellowship with his Creator. What the loving Lord provided is not enough, so the temptation goes. How slow we are to learn the serpent’s old tricks.
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Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
1 Timothy 6:6-8 (ESV)
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Selling Out His Presence
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 18, 2010
“Sadly, like the biblical Esau (see Genesis 25:29-34), we sometimes feel pridefully tempted to sell this amazing birthright of Christ’s presence for our own presence. We focus on our work, our influence, and our ministry. One of the biggest threats to incarnational living is pride. Instead of manifesting Christ’s presence, we want to showcase our own presence; instead of dispensing Christ’s wisdom, we want to spotlight our own insight; instead of speaking Christ’s truth, we want to spout our own opinions; instead of adopting Christ’s agenda, we want to accomplish our own five- or ten-year plans; instead of building Christ’s kingdom, we want to spread our own ‘ministry.’”
Gary Thomas
The Beautiful Fight, 38
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Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8: 18 (ESV)
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“I was nothing. You had no need of me. Even now my service has not even the value of a laborer tilling his master’s land, because even if I did not work, You would bring forth the same harvest. I can only serve You and worship You with the good that comes from You. It is from You alone that I receive strength and without You I am nothing.”
Augustine
Quoted by Nick Harrison
Magnificent Prayer, 186
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Someone has said that men aspire but God condescends. Our flesh wants to be something, but Christ made Himself nothing. To become like the beautiful Lord Jesus is to become humble and to live humbly.
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Fasting For God’s Glory
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 14, 2010
And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
Matthew 9:15 (ESV)
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“It is significant that the Lord dealt with fasting as a spiritual exercise distinct from praying. Though fasting and praying are often linked in Scripture and in experience, this is not necessarily the case. We should not think of fasting as a semi-detached house, always joined to praying. On the contrary it stands in its own grounds, and may on occasion serve a spiritual purpose all its own.
Just as there may be praying without fasting, so there may at times be fasting, truly acceptable to God, without praying—at least in the sense of intercession. There is no mention of prayer accompanying the fast we read of in Esther. In the fast of the prophets and teachers in Antioch, they were giving themselves to worship rather than prayer (Acts 13:2).
Because one is not able to give oneself to prayer for the whole of a fast does not mean that the period not accompanied by specific prayer is devoid of spiritual value. Fasting…has many purposes besides the very important one of facilitating intercession.”
Arthur Wallis
God’s Chosen Fast, 22
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“The supremacy of God in all things is the great reward we long for in fasting. His supremacy in our own affections and in all our life-choices. His supremacy in the purity of the church. His supremacy in the salvation of the lost. His supremacy in the establishing of righteousness and justice. And his supremacy for the joy of all peoples in the evangelization of the world.”
John Piper
A Hunger for God, 79
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